Middle East minister Hamish Falconer has apologized for the pain caused by the overlap of the government’s announcement of a suspension of arms license exports to Israel with the funerals of hostages murdered by Hamas.
Speaking to Jewish News, the Labour frontbencher and former diplomat said: “I want to acknowledge the pain that it caused. The timing was set by a legal process, and we had to stick to that process.”
The minister promoted straight into a senior role by Keir Starmer after being elected MP for Lincoln in July, added: ”I recognize that that timing will have been so evocative to the British Jewish community, but we have gone through a quasi-legal process. We had the decision, it was the first day back of Parliament, and we thought it was important that we did this in the same straight-down-the-line way that we have gone about this whole process," he said.
“I really regret that timing overlapped so closely as it did, but the right thing to do was to proceed on the basis that we’re legally doing this.”
Amid widespread communal anger Falconer continued: ”I have tried to be in regular contact with as many different Jewish community groups as I possibly can. I’ve heard on Monday and Tuesday directly from them. I want to reassure your readers that this government is very keen to be in regular conversation, to be listening to the Jewish community, right into the foreign office, into Number 10, we hear the Jewish voice. I have heard the pain from the Board, from the JLC, and from several rabbis.”
In the Commons on Monday, David Lammy announced the UK was suspending some arms export licenses to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
It came after the foreign secretary continued the legal process begun under the previous government and looked into the 350 UK arms export licenses to Israel.
On Wednesday, Keir Starmer defended the the decision to suspend 30 licenses as a “legal decision, not a policy decision” after Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’ claim that the move “beggars belief”.
Other groups including the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council reacted furiously, while Labour Friends of Israel voiced anger, and met again with Lammy on Wednesday to discuss the matter.
Progressive Judaism leaders attempted to strike a balance between reflecting the anger of some of their members while recognizing the government’s right to make sometimes unpopular decisions on Israel.
Yachad meanwhile argued the UK decision was a consequence of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government leaving Israel increasingly isolated on the world stage over its conduct in Gaza.
With some UK Jews questioning their decision to back Starmer’s party at the last election, and one Jewish Labour figure even suggesting Monday’s move undermined the past year-long attempt to move on from the antisemitism scandal under Jeremy Corbyn, Falconer said he recognized the arms license decision had come at “an incredibly emotional time” for Jews in the UK and Israel.
Many Jews in this country and across the globe wept as American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six hostages murdered by Hamas in Gaza, was buried in Jerusalem on Monday, shortly before Lammy spoke in the Commons.
Starmer's commitment to fight antisemitism remains as strong as ever, minister says
“I’m a former hostage negotiator myself, I was agonised to see what happened in Israel this week over the death of the hostages, and I recognize this is an incredibly emotional time,” he said.
“But I want to also say that Keir Starmer’s commitment to fight antisemitism remains as ardent and as strong as it has ever been. He is the only political party leader in my knowledge who used his first speech as leader to talk about antisemitism and his commitment remains absolutely steadfast. This government, its commitment to tackle antisemitism, is resolute.”
In a frank and engaging interview, the former civil servant who negotiated the release of British hostages from the Taliban, hit back at claims the only country to benefit from the Labour government’s decision on licenses was Iran, and its proxy terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Well, someone might want to let the Iranian regime know, given that we issued sanctions against four members of its regime on Monday,” Falconer insisted. “At the same time, we’ve had our chargé d’affaires summoned in Tehran this morning. So your readers should be reassured that Iran is not welcoming this decision," he said.
"In fact, they are clearly offended by further sanctions from us. And let me be clear, I am a former diplomat with a background in national security. I am under no illusions about the threat that Iran poses not just to Israel, but to global security and to the UK. There’s lots I can’t discuss, but I would expect you would see more from the British government about seeking to manage Iran’s behavior in the coming period.”
Falconer also addressed claims that the arms suspension decision meant the government had singled out the Jewish state at a time when it was under attack from several enemies.
“Suspensions have been applied across the world, including Saudi Arabia,” said Falconer, of the UK’s actions. We apply this process rigorously across the whole world. We have incredibly close relationships with the Israeli government on a whole range of things, much of which I can’t discuss," he said.
But does the UK take the same steps when it comes to Iran Saudi Arabia and China?
“It was with real sorrow, as the foreign secretary said on Monday, that we took this decision. We did it based on the same tests that were set out by the previous government in Parliament, which applied to every country in the world.”
Asked if similar vigorous tests were being applied to countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and even China, the Lincoln MP said:” There have been suspensions of other licenses. “Often people will not apply for a license in a country if they think that they are going to fall out of our criteria, which are clear and public. “So to look at the number of suspended licenses is not the best judge of whether or not we are applying it uniformly, because people do not want to attempt a commercial process if they know they won’t cut the threshold right.”
The minister, son of former Blair government Lord Chancellor and Labour grandee Charlie Falconer, was also at pains to “emphatically” dispute claims that the government wanted to win back lost support amongst pro-Palestine campaigners, and silence pro-Gaza MPs with its surprise move against Israel.
“If we were going to do this to try and win votes in exactly this way as you described, why would we have not announced that we were going to do it before (the election)?” Falconer argued. “What we said beforehand was we would follow the legal process, we would follow the evidence, and that the premise is absolutely clear – a government led by Keir Starmer would be driven by the rule of law. That is what we have done.”
Falconer said the decision over 30 out of 350 arms licenses to Israel “affects a small subset of the overall licenses”. He said firmly: ”We have not done this in a way to try and placate any political party that opposes us. And I would say those parties oppose us. We are not trying to placate them. ”
The minister also confirmed that the temporary suspension of licenses could be reversed as a decision by the UK “as a result of sustained changes.”
He added:” We keep this under regular review. We of course do not want to be making these sorts of decisions. In sorrow, the decision was taken. We hope to have a shared understanding with Israel that there is no risk under international law from their actions. In our view, that’s going to require changes on the ground. “But we hope that we can get to a point where the UK and Israel are completely satisfied that there are no risks to international humanitarian law from operations in Gaza. That is not the position today.”
Falconer also rejected reports that the UK was now at odds with its great ally America over the licensing decision.
Asked about reports in The Times of a rift, Falconer said:” I don’t recognize that characterization. I’ve been with American colleagues in the last short period. We’ve had extensive talks. We, of course, spoke to both Israeli and American colleagues in advance of this decision. I’m not sure where that reporting is coming from.. if you look at comments from the US press secretary yesterday.”
But on the obvious harm done to relations with Israel?
“What I say is there is obviously a disagreement between the British and Israeli governments,” says Falconer. This is not a new disagreement. There was a lot of continuity between the disputes that we have raised with Israel and the disagreements raised by the previous government," he said.
“I do not think this was a surprise to either side, and there is a much wider relationship that goes beyond these 30 licenses. Separate from the IHR questions, there is absolutely no reason that trade relations cannot flourish.”
Asked how the UK arms license decision would help bring an end to the bloodshed in Gaza, and also bring about the release of the hostages any quicker, the minister countered claims Monday’s decision offered no room for optimism.
“I am a traditionalist,” he says. ”The way in which you reach a resolution to these situations is by a ceasefire, by negotiation, and by clarity with one another. We have approached this with full transparency to the Israeli government, and to all our partners. We do not see this as detracting from that process. We want to see all sides showing the flexibility required to end this terrible conflict.”